Performance assessment of solar energy driven cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverters

Abstract

The last decade has witnessed a notable surge in the use of multilevel inverters, attributed to their ability to produce waveforms with enhanced harmonic profiles. These inverters have found wide application in high-voltage and high-power scenarios. Multilevel inverters offer advantages such as lower total harmonic distortion (THD), reduced voltage stress on switching devices, minimized switching losses, and smaller passive filter sizes. They serve in various applications, including AC drives, FACTS, and distributed generation. This study presents a comprehensive performance assessment of solar energy-driven cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverters (CHB-MLIs). This paper analyses the performance of 5-level and 7-level cascaded multilevel inverters using the Equal Phase (EP) method across different load conditions. The investigation involves MATLAB/Simulink software simulation studies and experimental validation on a prototype setup. The results demonstrate the effectiveness and feasibility of employing solar energy-driven cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverters for power conversion applications. This research contributes to understanding the performance characteristics of such inverters in solar energy systems, providing valuable insights for their practical implementation and integration into renewable energy grids. The study calculates the harmonics of cascaded multilevel inverters by substituting solar input for batteries. Results indicate that THD decreases as the inverter level increases while efficiency improves.